The brother-and-sister team behind BAK鈥橠 Cookies has increased its workforce and cookie production in response to the 鈥渂eyond incredible鈥� response to its new store in New West.
Siblings Jessica and Andy Nguyen launched BAK鈥橠 Cookies in April 2022 as a pandemic project, baking cookies in their Port Moody home before expanding their operations and utilizing a commissary kitchen. In June, they opened a ' shop in New Westminster鈥檚 Brewery District.
鈥淏eyond incredible,鈥� Jessica said about the community鈥檚 response.
The business is now baking about 1,000 cookies a day.
鈥淏ack in our old commissary, we were doing anywhere from like 2,000 to 3,000 a week,鈥� Andy said. 鈥淪o now, 1,000 a day is kind of insane to us.鈥�
The Nguyens were blown away by the demand for cookies at the newly opened shop.
鈥淲e have received an overwhelming amount of love. I think we grossly underestimated how much love we'd get. We were not prepared for it, but it was awesome,鈥� Jessica said. 鈥淲e were running out of everything.鈥�
The business owners quickly recognized the need to bake more cookies and to hire more staff to make and serve cookies and beverages, including the shop鈥檚 new lemonades.
鈥淲e were baking cookies faster than we could make the dough. We were having like a bit of a dough shortage in the back, so we would be out of a flavour for a little bit during the day,鈥� Andy recalled. 鈥淎nd then we'd be running out of the ingredients too. I went to Costco and bought about 400 sticks of butter, and I was like, 鈥楾his has to last me like a week at least. Right?鈥� And I think it lasted us about two days.鈥�
BAK鈥橠 Cookies now has about 27 employees, who are busy 鈥減umping out dough鈥� and baking cookies throughout the day, serving beverages (the strawberry matcha latte is one of the shop鈥檚 Top 10 best sellers) and selling cookies at farmers markets.
BAK鈥橠 Cookies makes five-ounce gourmet cookies, including eight permanent flavours and one rotating monthly special. Flavours include: The OG (chocolate and walnuts); Gimme S鈥檓ores; Birthday Cake; Bookies 鈥楴鈥� Cream: Earl Grey and Honey; Caramel Macchiato; Matcha Latte; and Chocolatey PB (peanut butter).
鈥淲e鈥檙e in the progress of adding on one more permanent flavour,鈥� Andy noted. 鈥淭hat's going to be our permanent vegan flavour because we do find quite a few vegan people wanting a taste of our cookies. We used to make a few vegan flavours here and there, but I think having one permanently on the menu will be nice, just so that everyone can enjoy cookies.鈥�
The Gimme S'mores is the business鈥檚 top-selling cookie. Andy鈥檚 favourite is the peanut butter cookie, while Jessica prefers the OG.
鈥淚 eat one a day 鈥� just for quality control,鈥� Jessica joked. 鈥淥bviously, I need to make sure every batch going out is good. I sacrifice myself, really, for the people.鈥�
One of the reasons the siblings were keen to open a storefront location was the desire to provide folks with a chance to eat the cookies while they are still warm.
鈥淣ow with our store, we can finally serve them to our customers fresh from the oven,鈥� Andy said. 鈥淚 think that was our biggest point with the store 鈥� we wanted customers to have the same experiences we would have in sneaking a cookie out of the oven before it gets sent to like a farmers market.鈥�
Each month, the siblings each produce a new flavour for the menu, with folks voting for the winning selection on social media. Hundreds 鈥� sometimes more than 1,000 people 鈥� vote on Instagram for each month鈥檚 specialty flavour.
Pandemic project
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, Jessica was finishing a business degree at Simon Fraser University and her younger brother was just completing high school, before heading off to UBC to pursue a business degree.
鈥淏ecause of the pandemic, job markets and everything kind of went on freeze,鈥� Jessica recalled. 鈥淭his just kind of came out of that.鈥�
While he was attending high school, Andy worked part-time in a bakery. One day early in the pandemic, Andy baked up a batch of cookies for his sister who was feeling a bit sad 鈥� and the concept for BAK鈥橠 was born.
Soon, Andy was baking cookies by the dozens and Jessica was meeting up with strangers on a street corner in Port Moody to deliver the cookies they had ordered online.
When quarantine restrictions eased and allowed markets to open, the Nguyens began selling at various farmers markets on weekends. A couple of years into selling BAK鈥橠 Cookies at markets, Jessica and Andy began thinking about opening a shop of their own, one that had its own kitchen.
On June 22, the siblings opened a BAK鈥橠 Cookies store at 285 Nelson's Court in the Brewery District development in Sapperton. They could not be happier about their decision to set up shop in New West 鈥� a community that has supported them through their early days at the farmer鈥檚 market.
鈥淲e always felt like New West had the best community and we got the most love and support from New West,鈥� Jessica said. 鈥淲e wanted to stay close to where we started. 鈥� This felt like a good fit.鈥�
New West residents and businesses have been incredibly supportive of the Nguyens decision to open in New West.
鈥淪o kind,鈥� Andy said. 鈥淲e always joke that it's almost like there's something in the water in New West because the people are so incredibly kind, welcoming everyone in.鈥�
Even though BAK鈥橠 now has a storefront location in Sapperton, it continues to sell at markets across the region, including New West, Burnaby, Cloverdale, Ladner, White Rock, Coquitlam, and Vancouver.
The siblings, who now live in Vancouver, have plenty of ideas for the future of BAK鈥橠, including new stores, new products, and new cookie flavour to explore.
鈥淲e have a lot of crazy ideas that we want to push out,鈥� Jessica said. 鈥淎nd now that we have our own space, we have a lot more freedom.鈥�